British Culture

The culture of the United Kingdom refers to

the patterns of human activity and
symbolism associated with the British
people and the United Kingdom.
It is informed by the UK's history as a
developed island country, monarchy,
imperial power and, particularly, as
consisting of four countriesEngland,
Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales
which each have their own preserved and
distinctive customs and symbolism.
Popular culture of the United Kingdom has
impacted upon the world in the form of the
British invasion, Britpop and British
television broadcasting. British literature
and British poetry, particularly that of
William Shakespeare, is revered across the
world.

1. Languages in the United Kingdom
No official language. English is the main language and
the de facto official language, spoken monolingually by
an estimated 95% of the UK population.
However, individual countries within the UK have
frameworks for the promotion of their indigenous
languages. In Wales, English and Welsh are both widely
used by officialdom, and Irish and Ulster Scots enjoy
limited use alongside English in Northern Ireland,
mainly in publicly commissioned translations.
Additionally, the Western Isles council area of Scotland
has a policy to promote Scottish Gaelic.
2. The Arts
2.1 Literature
The earliest existing native literature of the territory of the
modern United Kingdom was written in the Celtic languages of
the isles.
Anglo-Saxon literature includes Beowulf, a national epic, but
literature in Latin predominated among educated elites.
After the Norman Conquest Anglo-Norman literature brought
continental influences to the isles.
English literature emerged as a recognisable entity in the late
14th century, with the rise and spread of the London dialect of
Middle English.
Geoffrey Chaucer is the first great identifiable individual in
English literature: his Canterbury Tales remains a popular 14th-
century work which readers still enjoy today.
From Elizabethan period, poet and playwright William Shakespeare
stands out as arguably the most famous writer in the world.
The English novel became a popular form in the 18th century, with Daniel
Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719), Samuel Richardson's Pamela (1740) and
Henry Fielding's Tom Jones (1745).
After a period of decline, the poetry of Robert Burns revived interest in
vernacular literature, the rhyming weavers of Ulster being influenced by
literature from Scotland.
In the early 19th century, the Romantic period showed a flowering of
poetry comparable with the Renaissance two hundred years earlier, with
such poets as William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Keats, and Lord
Byron.
The Victorian period was the golden age of the realistic English novel,
represented by Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters (Charlotte, Emily and
Anne), Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, George Eliot, Lord Alfred
Tennyson and Thomas Hardy.
World War I gave rise to British war poets and writers such as Wilfred
Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves and Rupert Brooke who wrote
(often paradoxically), of their expectations of war, and/or their
experiences in the trench.
The Scottish Renaissance of the early 20th century brought modernism to
Scottish literature as well as an interest in new forms in the literatures of
Scottish Gaelic and Scots.
The English novel developed in the 20th century into much greater variety
and was greatly enriched by immigrant writers. It remains today the
dominant English literary form.
Other well-known novelists include Arthur Conan Doyle, D. H. Lawrence,
George Orwell, Salman Rushdie, Mary Shelley, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis,
Virginia Woolf, Ian Fleming and J. K. Rowling.
Important poets include Elizabeth Barrett Browning, T. S. Eliot, Ted Hughes,
Philip Larkin, John Milton, Alfred Tennyson, Rudyard Kipling, Alexander
Pope, and Dylan Thomas.
2.2 Theatre
The United Kingdom has a vibrant tradition of
theatre.
The reign of Elizabeth I in the late 16th and early
17th century saw a flowering of the drama and all
the arts. Perhaps the most famous playwright in the
world, William Shakespeare, wrote around 40 plays
that are still performed in theatres across the world
to this day.
Today the West End of London has a large number
of theatres, particularly centred around Shaftesbury
Avenue.
The Royal Shakespeare Company operates out of
Shakespeare's birthplace Stratford-upon-Avon in
England, producing mainly but not exclusively
Shakespeare's plays.
Important modern playwrights include Alan
Ayckbourn, John Osborne, Harold Pinter, Tom
Stoppard, and Arnold Wesker.
2.3 Music
Composers William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, John Taverner, John
Blow, Henry Purcell, Edward Elgar, Arthur Sullivan, William
Walton, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Benjamin Britten and
Michael Tippett have made major contributions to British
music, and are known internationally.
The United Kingdom also supports a number of major
orchestras.
London is one of the world's major centres for classical
music.
The UK was one of the two main countries in the
development of rock music, and has provided bands.
It has pioneered various forms of electronic dance music.


2.4 Broadcasting
The UK has been at the forefront of developments in film,
radio, and television.
Broadcasting in the UK has historically been dominated by
the BBC, although independent radio and television (ITV,
Channel 4, Five) and satellite broadcasters (especially BSkyB)
have become more important in recent years.
BBC television, and the other three main television
channels are public service broadcasters who, as part of
their license allowing them to operate, broadcast a variety
of minority interest programming.
The United Kingdom has a large number of national and
local radio stations .

2.5 Visual art
The oldest art in the United Kingdom can be dated to
the Neolithic period, and is found in a funerary context.
In the Iron Age, the Celtic culture spread in the British
isles, and with them a new art style.
The Romans brought with them the Classical style and
glass work and mosaics.
The Celtic fringe gained back some of the power lost in
the Roman period, and the Celtic style again became a
factor influencing art all over the UK.
In the UK the different style to some extent fused into
a British Celtic-Scandinavian hybrid.

Notable visual artists from
the United Kingdom include
John Constable, Sir Joshua
Reynolds, Thomas
Gainsborough, William
Blake and J.M.W. Turner.
Notable illustrators include
Aubrey Beardsley, Roger
Hargreaves, and Beatrix
Potter.
Notable arts institutions
include the Allied Artists'
Association, Royal College
of Art, Artists' Rifles, Royal
Society of Arts, New English
Art Club, Slade School of Art,
Royal Academy, and the
Tate Gallery.


2.6 Architecture
The architecture of the United
Kingdom has a long and diverse
history from beyond Stonehenge
to the designs of Norman Foster
and the present day.
The earliest remnants of
architecture are mainly neolithic
monuments.
Over the two centuries following
the Norman conquest of 1066,
and the building of the Tower of
London, many great castles such
as Caernarfon Castle in Wales and
Carrickfergus Castle in Ireland
were built to suppress the natives.


In the early 18th century baroque architecture
was introduced, and Blenheim Palace was built in
this era.
However, baroque was quickly replaced by a
return of the Palladian form.
The Georgian architecture of the 18th century
was an evolved form of Palladianism.
In the early 19th century the romantic medieval
gothic style appeared as a backlash to the
symmetry of Palladianism.


At the beginning of the 20th century, arts
and crafts in architecture is symbolized by
an informal, non symmetrical form, often
with mullioned or lattice windows, multiple
gables and tall chimneys. This style
continued to evolve until World War II.
Following the Second World War
reconstruction was heavily influenced by
Modernism, especially from the late 1950s
to the early 1970s.
Modernism remains a significant force in
UK architecture, although its influence is
felt predominantly in commercial buildings.
The two most prominent proponents are
Lord Rogers of Riverside and Lord Foster of
Thames Bank.

3. Science and Technology
From the time of the Scientific Revolution,
England and Scotland, and thereafter the
United Kingdom, have been prominent in
world scientific and technological
development.

Possibly the most famous of all English scientists,
Isaac Newton, is considered by historians of science
to have crowned and ended the scientific revolution
with the 1687 publication of his Principia
Mathematica.
Technologically, the UK is also
amongst the world's leaders.
Historically, it was at the
forefront of the Industrial
Revolution, with innovations
especially in textiles, the
steam engine, railroads and
civil engineering.
The UK remains one of the
leading providers of
technological innovations
today.
4. Religion
The United Kingdom was created as a Protestant
Christian country and Protestant churches remain the
largest faith group in each country of the UK.
* The Anglican Church of England, is the Established
Church in England. The Queen is Supreme Governor of
the Church of England.
* The Presbyterian Church of Scotland is regarded as
the national church in Scotland.
* The Anglican Church in Wales was disestablished in
1920.
* The Anglican Church of Ireland was disestablished in
1871.
Other religions followed in the UK include Roman
Catholicism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, and
Buddhism.
5. Cuisine
British cuisine is the specific set of
cooking traditions and practices
associated with the United Kingdom.
Historically, British cuisine means
"unfussy dishes made with quality
local ingredients, matched with
simple sauces to accentuate flavour,
rather than disguise it."
However, British cuisine has
absorbed the cultural influence of
those that settled in Britain,
producing hybrid dishes, such as the
Anglo-Indian Chicken tikka masala,
hailed as "Britain's true national
dish".
British dishes include fish and chips,
the Sunday roast, and bangers and
mash.
British cuisine has several national
and regional varieties, including
English, Scottish and Welsh cuisine,
which each have developed their
own regional or local dishes, many of
which are geographically indicated
foods such as Cheshire cheese, the
Yorkshire pudding, Arbroath Smokie
and Welsh rarebit.
6. Education
Each country of the United Kingdom has a
separate education system, with power over
education matters in Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland being devolved.
Education matters for England are dealt with
by the UK government since there is no
devolved administration for England.
6.1 England
Most schools came under state control in
the Victorian era, a formal state school
system was instituted after the Second
World War.
Initially schools were separated into
infant schools (normally up to age 4 or 5),
primary schools and secondary schools
(split into more academic grammar
schools and more vocational secondary
modern schools).
England has many prominent private
schools, often founded hundreds of
years ago, which are known as public
schools or independent schools. Eton,
Harrow and Rugby are three of the
better known.
England's universities
England's universities include the so-called Oxbridge
universities of (Oxford University and Cambridge
University) which are amongst the world's oldest
universities and are generally ranked top of all British
universities.
Some institutions are world-renowned in specialised
and often narrow areas of study, such as Imperial
College London (science and engineering) and London
School of Economics (economics and social sciences).
Academic degrees are usually split into classes: first
class (I), upper second class (II:1), lower second class
(II:2) and third (III), and unclassified (below third class).
6.2 Northern Ireland
The Northern Ireland Assembly is responsible
for education in Northern Ireland though
responsibility at a local level is administered
by 5 Education and Library Boards covering
different geographical areas.
6.3 Scotland
Scotland has a long history of universal provision of public
education, and the Scottish education system is distinctly
different from other parts of the United Kingdom.
Traditionally, the Scottish system has emphasised breadth
across a range of subjects compared to the English, Welsh
and Northern Irish system has emphasised greater depth of
education over a smaller range of subjects at secondary
school level.
Qualifications at the secondary school and post-secondary
(further education) level are provided by the Scottish
Qualifications Authority and delivered through various
schools, colleges and other centres.
State schools are owned and operated by the local
authorities which act as Education Authorities, and the
compulsory phase is divided into primary school and
secondary school (often called High school).
Scottish universities generally have courses a year
longer than their counterparts elsewhere in the UK,
though it is often possible for students to take a more
advanced specialised exams and join the courses at the
second year. One unique aspect is that the ancient
universities of Scotland issue a Master of Arts as the
first degree in humanities.
6.4 Wales
The National Assembly for Wales has
responsibility for education in Wales.
A significant number of students in Wales are
educated either wholly or largely through the
medium of Welsh and lessons in the language
are compulsory for all until the age of 16.
There are plans to increase the provision of
Welsh Medium schools as part of the policy of
having a fully bi-lingual Wales.
7. Sociological Issues
England has one of the highest population densities in
Europe. Housing, therefore, tends to be smaller and more
closely packed than in other countries.
In the modern United Kingdom more detached housing has
started to be built, most beginning in the mid-nineties.
Driven by the strong economy, city living has boomed with
city centre population's rising rapidly.
Most of this population growth has been accommodated
through new apartment blocks in residential schemes, such
as those in Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester.
7.1 Housing
7.2 Living Arrangements
Historically most people in the United
Kingdom lived either in conjugal
extended families or nuclear families.
In the 20th century the general trend is
a rise in single people living alone, the
virtual extinction of the extended family
(outside certain ethnic minority
communities), and the nuclear family
arguably reducing in prominence.
Some research indicates that in the 21st
century young people are tending to
continue to live in the parental home
for much longer than their predecessors.


8. Sports
The national sport of the UK is football, having
originated in England, and the UK has the
oldest football clubs in the world. The first
ever international football match was
between Scotland and England in 1872. The
match ended goalless.
Other famous British sporting events include the
Wimbledon tennis championships, the Grand National,
the London Marathon, the Six Nations rugby
championships (of which 4 "home nations" participate),
the British Grand Prix, The Open Championship, The
Ashes cricket series and The Boat Race between Oxford
and Cambridge universities.
A great number of major sports originated in the
United Kingdom, including football, squash, golf, tennis,
boxing, rugby (rugby union and rugby league), cricket,
field hockey, snooker, billiards, badminton and curling.
9. National Costume and Dress
There is no national costume of the United Kingdom.
Scotland has the kilt and Tam o'shanter. In England
certain military uniforms such as the Beefeater or the
Queen's Guard are considered national symbols.
British fashions defined acceptable dress for men of
business. Key figures such as Beau Brummell, the future
Edward VII and Edward VIII created the modern suit and
cemented its dominance.
10. Naming Convention
The naming convention in most of the United Kingdom
is for everyone to have a given name, (or forename)
usually (but not always) indicating the child's sex,
followed by a parent's family name.
Traditionally, Christian names were those of Biblical
characters or recognised saints; however, in the Gothic
Revival of the Victorian era, other Anglo Saxon and
mythical names enjoyed something of a fashion among
the literati.
Since the middle of the 20th century, however, first
names have been influenced by a much wider cultural
base.
11. Questions for Discussion
1. What are chief languages used in the
United Kingdom today?
2. Please talk about Elizabethan Theatre?